Shopping in Goa: Azulejos De Goa

Even in the busy streets of Panaji, the artistic façade, covered with Azulejos tiles, of Orlando de Noronha’s ceramic store was hard to miss. Originating from the Spanish and Portuguese style ceramic craft, Azulejos tiles feature intricate designs made with blue and white glaze.

Orlando de Noronha’s store in Panaji, Goa

Orlando de Noronha, an arts graduate, decided to pursue his passion for music in Portugal several years ago. While developing his the skills in playing the Portuguese guitar, he grew fascinated with the traditional Azulejos tiles that covered the European streets, which led him to learning and mastering the craft. On his return to India, he set up a store that offered the most well crafted Azulejos work in Goa, in addition to continuing his musical career. Very soon all the homes and resorts in the Indo-Portuguese town was covered with the distinct blue and white name tiles and murals.

Azulejos de Goa also stocks up copies of works of the late renowned Goan artist, Mario Miranda that have been transferred into to ceramic tiles. Noronha also sells hand painted and printed ceramic tiles, priced from Rs.50 onwards.

“We have a lot of demand for Portuguese and Spanish designs, so we are working on that,” says Noronha, “We have been supplying to Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and also working on supplying internationally to countries like Australia. We also supply online on our website.”

Noronha is also involved in creating murals and designs for resorts, restaurants and private residences, which has helped him further expand his business over the past 3 years. He believes that the trend of having murals and decorated tile works has been taking on pretty well, he explained, “People often get confused with the kind of designs and colour schemes that they feel would look nice in their homes. We paint the designs on location to give the customer an idea of how it looks before we start working on it.”

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Roshna has been photographing and covering stories about retail, fashion, food and beauty in South India for several years. She spends most of her time exploring coastal and heritage areas. She can be reached at roshna@houzify.com